CHADRON, Neb. – Jennah Knafelc made a deep three-pointer on the right sideline with two seconds left in overtime to push the University of Colorado Colorado Springs to an 80-78 win against Chadron State at the Chicoine Center. The Mountain Lions (17-7, 13-5 RMAC) moved into a tie for fourth in the RMAC standings with four games left in the regular season.

Knafelc made her first three 3-point attempts and led both teams with nine points at the end of the first quarter. UCCS held a 20-15 advantage after the first quarter, but Chadron State scored the first 13 points in the second quarter and led 38-30 against the Mountain Lions at halftime.

Brittany Hernandez, who was sidelined for most of the first half with two early fouls, scored 11 points in the third quarter to help the Mountain Lions narrow the Chadron State lead down to 51-46 by the end of the quarter. UCCS put together a seven-point run early in the fourth quarter that was finished by a baseline three-pointer by Gabby Ramirez to tie the game at 55-55 with 7:27 left on the clock.

Shanah Leaf provided the first UCCS lead since the second quarter on a free throw with 3:59 left in regulation, but the Eagles scored the next five points to take a 67-63 lead with 2:41 to play. The lead remained at four points for Chadron State at 73-69 with 1:14 to play.

Tori Fisher made a layup 12 seconds left and Chadron State brought the ball down the floor and nearly lost it, but tied it up and retained possession on the jump ball with 2 seconds left on the shot clock with 36.6 seconds left. The Mountain Lions forced a shot clock violation after the ball was inbounded and earned possession with 33.3 seconds to play.

Fisher tied the game with a hook shot in front of the basket with 20.8 seconds to play, and Hernandez stole the ball on the inbound with 20.0 seconds. UCCS used its final timeout to set up the final possession with no shot clock, but couldn't score the go-ahead points before the quarter ended at 73-73.

A pair of free throws from Fisher made it a two-point lead at 75-73 early in overtime and the Mountain Lion defense held the Eagles to no field goals for nearly three minutes before Chadron State took its first lead of the period at 76-75. The Eagles used two free throws for a 78-75 lead and Fisher brought the game back within a point with two more free throws with 47.9 seconds left at 78-77.

Chadron State missed a layup with 20 seconds to play, and Fisher grabbed the defensive rebound and the Mountain Lions called a timeout to advance the ball to midcourt. UCCS struggled to get a shot before a pass out to Knafelc well beyond the three-point line on the far sideline set up the game-winning shot with 2.0 seconds to play. Chadron State advanced the ball with its own timeout, but missed the game-tying layup and Fisher collected her ninth rebound of the night to secure the 80-78 victory.

Ramirez led UCCS with 20 points in her second 20-point game of her career and the first since her freshman year. She scored 15 of the points on three-pointers and added four assists and four rebounds. Fisher scored 16 points and led UCCS with nine rebounds. Hernandez finished with 15 points, with 13 in the second half, and made five rebounds. Knafelc scored 13 points in her best scoring performance in 2016.

The win pushed UCCS into a three-way tie for fourth in the RMAC standings with Colorado Christian and tomorrow's opponent, Regis. The Rangers lost tonight 71-70 to MSU Denver to end a nine-game winning streak. Saturday's game will start at 5 p.m., at the Regis Fieldhouse in Denver.